MIAMI, United States.- Oscar-nominated American actor and two-time Golden Globe winner James Franco will play the role of the late dictator Fidel Castro in a film directed by Spanish director and screenwriter Miguel Bardem.
The independent film, entitled: Alina de Cuba: La Hija Rebelde, will tell the story of Alina Fernández, Castro’s daughter who went into exile for political reasons in Spain in 1993 and has since opposed the communist regime in Havana.
As the magazine said on Thursday VarietyFranco’s casting was supported by Fernández herself, who works in the production as a creative and biographical consultant.
“Discovering and convincing James Franco to play Castro was a fun and difficult process and has been the collaborative work of the universe, because our director’s sole mandate was to find an actor who had detailed knowledge and physical resemblance to the real Castro. ”, explained John Martinez O’Felan, artistic producer of the work.
“By conducting a detailed search of our applicants through the care of the Spanish and Portuguese family tree that the Galicians had, we discovered that James, by far, had the closest facial resemblance,” he added.
Alina de Cuba, from Mankind Entertainment and Maven Pictures, will star Cuban-American Ana Villafañe, who will play the role of Fernández. The script was written by Oscar nominee José Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz.
For its part, the production of the film is scheduled to begin filming on August 15 in Colombia. The film’s supporting cast includes Alanna de la Rosa, María Cecilia Botero, Harding Junior, Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernández.
Alina Fernández was the fruit of an affair between Fidel Castro and Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, a figure of Cuban high society, married at the time, who helped finance the revolution of the then insurgent.
At the age of 10, Alina learned that she was the daughter of Fidel Castro, when after several secret visits to the dictator’s house, her mother finally revealed to her that the communist leader was her biological father.
Fernández went into exile in 1993, left for Spain disguised as a tourist with a wig and a forged passport, shortly after settling in Miami.
In 1998 Alina Fernández wrote “Castro’s daughter. Memories of exile from Cuba”, in which she describes intimate details of her life.
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